The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-09-07

what men pay for the single item OF
vicious and demoralizing amusements.
All amusements are not sinful. The
popular amusements of the age usual
iy are; and yet they are patronized
and sustained in a most eXtravagant
way by men and women who not un-
frequently, in the course of decade,
squander thousands Of dollars in this
direction, while. at the same time. a
thousand pressing claims from the
church, from God and humanity, are
ignored and repudiated. At this time
there are in the city of New York a
half-dozer theatres, with a seating ca
pacity of $4,000, which furnish facili-
ties for RIGHTEOUSNESS by "providing
prostitutes with accommodations in
their third tier. Take away this third
tier from a theatre, and one of the
chief sources of revenue is dried up.
These theatres receive in the aggre-
rate about $4,000 night, after the sea-
son is fairly open. The saloons OF the
late Broadway Theatre when first
opened, were rented at $4,000 per an
nun. and the receipts at the office
were nearly $4,000 nightly, One OF
the old theatres, now extinct, received
$500, 900 in seven years. rms SHOWS
that time and money and character
are not squandered in brothels, gam.
bling helIs and lottery Offices alone"
"In six of the many theatres in New
York City, and in two places of occa-
sional theatricals, and in one circus,
there are from one to two hundred
persons employed in each. The Bow
cry pays 81 900 to one paper for adver-
tising, besides hand-bills, cards and
posters, amounting to several thous.
and more. Hard times, indeed,
writes correspondent; the theatres
were full last night to overtiowing,
and it is reliably stated that their re-
ceipts averaged about S1,500.' These
four theatres received, doubtless, not
less than Sl,000,000 annually, and all
the theatres in New York not less than
two million. This is the princely in
come required to meet the correspond
ingly profuse expenditures of these
places, and gives some idea, at least, of
the eXpensiveness of amusements.
The noted actor. kean, used to be paid
$3.50 a night at the Drury Lane Thea
tire. The actors at the Park Theatre
were paid from $50 to 500 week.
Prof. Bronson was offered 1000 q
week. He agreed to accept if the dis
sipation and the profanity Of the stage
could be removed, and the nufsances
could be taken away. But, as that
could not be done, he refused"
Furthermore, to show how willing
the world is to pay for fun-for selfish,
sinful, and most frequently for immor-
al fun-it is reliably stated that an
Italian singer received $4,000 for a
single season, and a nobleman has
been known to pay 81 800 a year for q
single box in all opera. Jenny Lind,
the Swedish singer, was offered q
thousand dollars night to sing for 2CC
nights, and all the expenses of herself
and her father paid, and carriage al
ways at her command. Another writ,
er gives an aggregate of the annual
cost of public amusements in New
York City at SS,0O0,000, and the
amount of intoxicating liquor sold at
10000 drinking-places at S2O,O00,0O
or, including time and labor wasted,
and capital involved in the traffic, not
less than S50,000,000.
You can see, at glance, that l am
merely touching the surface OF this
great evil. What I have said pertains
chiefly to q single amusement, confin-
ed TO single city. I have touched
but single note in the gamut OF this
scale of death, and the sound produc-
ed is alarming. Were to go into eX-
tended and exhausted details of the
cost of all the amusements in the land,
from the fascinating opera houses
down through long graduation to the
indecent exhibitions of the vile assem-
blies seen at 1.-The Points," and in the
beer gardens of Royal street; if were
TO take in the bowling alleys, the bill
lard saloons, the ale houses, the shoot
ing galleries, the fashionable and at
traclive restaurants, together with all
the low-fung theatres, circuses, muse
ums, Ministries, menageries OF the
lowest order, and the lascivious per-
iormances of fashionable bathrooms
and dance. houses, that curse and blast
the morals of the brightest youth in
the land, we would then begin to form
some sort of idea as to the enormous
tax which is levied by this insidious
foe upon the purses of the Individual
and of the nation. Surely, the god
less worldling is rich toward himself.
nor refuses his purse to the claims OF
hell, and the demands of his satanic
lord.
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